I did the brainwash reversal BEFORE my quit day, and now after 3 wonderful smoke-free days, I really can confirm: it is easy when the mind set is right.

I smoked for 37 years! nonstop! and was in panic when thinking that I might be out of cigarettes.. the long flight to Germany once a year has pushed me always over the edge, at least once every flight I sucked in just 3 or 4 puffs in the bathroom, risking setting off the alarm.... which would have been some serious expensive cigarette if caught!

so, you see, I was a smoker through and through... with an addiction I thought was incurable, and fear, fear, and fear of failure and being weak... and again I say it: it was so easy to stop.

Because I explained to my brain, which is the creator and holder of all patterns, over and over again:

• I am not loosing when I stop smoking, I am winning!!!
• Every not smoked cigarette is NOT a sacrifice but a VICTORY.
• I am free!
• I am liberated from a bad addiction!
  YAY, I am free!

And I did it with help: Alan Carr's "Easy Way to Stop Smoking" book. It's a very different approach than almost every other technique or the hints and tips given on co.quitnet.com (member adonim), because it prepares you, if you allow it, to be happy on your quit day and to ENJOY your withdrawal pangs (yes, you read that right).
This book recommends some do's and don'ts', which I find most appreciable:

DO NOT use any form of substitute
_______ especially NOT nicotine!
DO NOT keep your own cigarettes
DO NOT avoid other smokers
DO NOT change your lifestyle in any way purely because you've stopped smoking

See if this resonates with you or not...
Love and Light,
Angela -
a happy and relaxed brandnew non-smoker...:-)
I ... A M ... F R E E ...!!!

P.S.:
in 2000 I was free for 4 months and then I smoked this one and only one cig... duh!
I've learned that lesson too, and have much more respect for nicotin. For a long lasting success I wrote this one rule on the wall:
I am commited to never ever again put nicotin into my body!

I had to learn how to face, acknowledge and accept withdrawal pangs simply as what they are: cute painless nicotine withdrawal attacks, not stronger than a moderate feeling of hunger, which deserve a smile and then let them go. So it happened on my second quit day. I was sitting in my car, which was the only "space with a roof", with either heat or air condition, music, and some sort of comfort, where I have smoked so many of these illusion stickers. As all of the sudden a bad urge to smoke ran through me... I couldn't find my list of positive thoughts... and I almost felt like loosing it, like becoming weak... I had nothing else in my brain as "smoking, smoking, smoking" and no spontaneous idea how to break this pattern... when I looked through the screen into the sky and screamed out loud:

"EVERYBODY... HELP!"

It was intense. I meant it. I really wanted help!

And one second later I got help from just about EVERYBODY.
The energy push was so strong, that it blew my fuses...
St. Germain, Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, Mother Mary.. just name it... everybody stopped by and sent down some loving, helping energy. The entire heavenly company seemed to fire light-shots on and through my physical appearance. Countless guardian angels, on their way to other people in real need, stopped for just a brief moment, turned around, dropped their suitcases, and threw down their energy, too, before they went back to their mission.

Holy smoke!

Tears were running while grinning in bliss, accompanied by some sort of silly laughter, and my car drove the next 4 or 5 blocks on auto pilot...:-)

You know that I am exaggerating a little bit, don't you? Of course not everybody was sending energy, but it sure felt like it... and I know with certainty that Spirit was jumping on this opportunity to make fun about me again. Spirit knows my English is far from perfect, Spirit knows that I meant "somebody" and not "everybody", and Spirit "fights the devil with humor", no doubt!

Needless to say, that my asking for help brought all the help (and more) I needed... but, I have to watch out what excatly I wish for...:-)

How do I break the patterns.
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8 days now... and it IS easy!
.. but still discovering, acknowledging, healing, and removing smoking related patterns and triggers...:-)*

of course, it is said, it takes 21 days to brake a pattern, and since smoking has attached itself to so many habits it will take some "work" to turn around all patterns... LOL**

My morning coffee + cigarette pattern

This pattern is completely broken down to just the coffee (which is my next project... getting rid of caffeine, but as long as I use it I do enjoy it though...:-) From quit day one I do what I always did: first thing in the morning I make my coffee, go out in the backyard, DO NOT light up a cig, and enjoy the coffee. I really do! Instead of the cigarette pack, I was grabbing Allan Carr's book and reading the uplifting reminders by randomly picking a page, over and over again, or creating my own like: I WISH to NOT smoke any more.
It is my honest DECISION not to smoke ever again.
I don't "must" quit smoking but I "WANT to"!
I am NOT a slave, neither of nicotine nor of the cigarette industry.
I will starve the nicotine-monster within to death by not feeding it any longer with nicotine.
And it will be dead latest after 3 weeks.
Until then I just "observe with DELIGHT" the nicotine-monster how it tries to trigger me to grab a cig so that it can stay alive - and I will SMILE when I acknowledge those attempts and say to my brain: Dear brain, we are facing here an automatic reaction caused through addiction.
Understand NOW
... that I don't NEED to smoke,
... that I don't WISH to smoke, ever again,
... and that many automatic habitual situations will change from now on.
So, dear brain,
......... give it up,
......... let it be,
......... I'm not doing it,
......... get used to it! LOL, it really works... for me.

My cell phone + cigarette pattern

This one came as a surprise on the fifth day. All days before I was busy keeping my brain on the right track, and didn't realized that I have a cell phone pattern too...:-) Ok, that day I grabbed the phone, as I have done so many times before, went out on the porch and got all of the sudden this weird ugly highly unsatisfied feeling, which turned almost into grumpy surly mood with each step further outside... hmmm...
there is was again: the nicotine-monster triggering me to turn back and "nurture" myself with a good old smoke!
One leg was on its way back inside, the other leg was on its way to the garden chair.
CRITICAL situation! It really felt, so as every smoker knows this feeling, as the overwhelming urge to smoke... now what? First of all: STOP. Stop right there were I was. No uncontrolled, automated reaction!
Second: THINK. Think positive (see above words to my brain) But, here's the problem:
the brain doesn't want to think, it wants to get the FAST FIX, it's used to start an automatic reaction in those moments of low nicotine level. Solution:
I give the brain what it wants, temporarily, by making it understand why it can't move my hands and mouth to light a cig: "brain, hey, it is now like in the movie theater. Remember? 2 hours no smoking, and it's relatively ok, because we like the movie. Got it? It's a movie right now, ok? Ok." Gee, this is how I gained some time and got a chance to follow up with all these wonderful uplifting thoughts about why I do not WISH to smoke. Once those thoughts like "I WANT to quit", "I WISH to be an ex-smoker", "I DESIRE to be FREE", etc., are thought or even spoken out aloud the logical mind can't help it but follow the energies of these words and support the meaning of it. I looked at the cell phone, very aware very conscious, and said aloud: "from now on there will be no more smoking-trigger-pattern attached to this phone - I do not WISH to smoke when I'm on the phone! - do you hear me phone, do you hear me brain!? Alright then, and so be it!" It's a matter of decision, which has to be done within a few seconds, which then determines if you stick with your quit plan or fall back into the nicotine trap! Therefore: have always some uplifting thoughts ready with you, either as a book, or diary, or piece of paper, or just tatoo it onto your arm...:-) After I understood this mind-trick and the nicotine-monster's subtle way of trying to lure me back in, I just got a laughter about myself and went on with my quitting business. For me, it all comes down to:
- acknowledge each pattern where the addiction creates a craving
- be gentle with your brain, let it (your mind) know that you understand how addiction works
- do not react spontaneous
- stop, stand still and gain time
- think the right thoughts
- enjoy every discovered and kicked patternLove and Light,
Angela

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* :-) = smile
** LOL = Laugh Out Loud